137 



other major appliances.' 



The agency's main weaknesses lie in persistent bureaucratic 

 inefficiencies and a susceptibility to special pleading from short- 

 sighted utility constituencies. On the former point, I think that 

 BPA has launched a sincere and credible effort at reform in its 

 Function by Function Review process (I am a participant) . And 

 hearings like this can help ensure that regional interests remain 

 paramount despite all the special pleading. 



BPA is not acquiring all cost-effective efficiency and 



renewable resources. Conservation programs are encountering severe 



budget constraints — including another 12 percent cut announced in 



the last few days'* — and although the region currently is on a 



path to meet the Northwest Power Planning Council's minimum 



conservation goals, NRDC is concerned that this progress may not be 



sustained.^ It is important to recall what the Northwest Power 



Planning Council said to BPA and the rest of the region in its last 



regional plan: 



No opportunity for energy conservation should be missed. 

 The successful completion of this action will mean 

 installing cost-effective measures in nearly every 

 residence, commercial enterprise and industrial facility 

 in the Northwest. It means operating programs in the 

 commercial and industrial sectors at levels many times 

 greater than anything attempted to date in this region.' 



'See, e.g. . The Great Refrigerator Race . Business Week, July 

 5, 1993, at p. 78 (describing $30 million investment by utility 

 consortium, including BPA, that has spurred dramatic product 

 innovation and improved efficiencies for refrigerators) . 



^"[T]he conservation budget for the biennium will be reduced 

 by 55 million, or 12 percent, from the amount projected last fall." 

 Clearing Up . July 5, 1993, at p. 8. 



'See June 1993 Conservation Monitor , at p. 1 ("Utilities report 

 regional conservation savings totaling 54 average megawatts for 

 1991 and 94 aMW for 1992, which puts the region slightly ahead of 

 regional conservation targets set for those two years in the 

 Northwest Power Planning Council's 1991 regional plan") . 



'Northwest Power Planning Council, 1991 Northwest Conservation 

 and Electric Power Plan , at pp. 32-33. 



